Hi there. This one’s a little different. I’m Gayatri, the newest addition to the UXR team here at Plum, joining forces with Jahnavi to bring you future newsletters and reports. Thrilled to be here—and equally thrilled to finally send out this brain dump.
It’s about the elephant in every room, every feed, every group chat: AI.
You’ve probably heard it a hundred times already: "AI-this, AI-that."
From LinkedIn think-pieces to Instagram reels, from podcasts to your neighbour’s kitchen table conversation—it’s everywhere. You won’t believe it but even my 78-year-old grandma is watching AI generated cats singing APT (I have video evidence if you don’t believe me), and she’s been warning me against Ghibli-fy-ing photos.
The buzz is deafening, but here’s the thing—it’s real.
AI is no longer just a trending topic; it’s a full-fledged co-worker. People now turn to tools like ChatGPT not just for writing or answers, but for perspective—for companionship even. It’s a friend, a mentor, a subject-matter expert, a wingman and occasionally, a therapist.
But what does it mean for us at Plum Research?
Are we automating ourselves out of relevance?
Not quite. In fact, we’ve found ourselves a not-so-secret third team member—and yes, it runs on prompts.
AI as a Teammate, Not a Threat
While the internet’s busy arguing whether AI will take everyone’s jobs, we’ve been quietly teaching it how to do ours—at least parts of it.
We’ve started experimenting with using AI as a writing buddy and, more excitingly, as a data wrangler —helping us organize and extract value from piles of interview transcripts and survey notes. Imagine asking, “Hey, what did people really mean when they said onboarding was confusing?” and getting a summarized theme with supporting quotes in seconds.
Helping you find the Signal in the Noise
One of the biggest challenges in UXR is knowing how to tell a story that sticks—for product managers, for designers, for leadership. We feel the insights, but translating that into something everyone else can see and act on? That takes work.
With AI, we’re experimenting with tailoring our reports to resonate with different teams—same research, different lens. A win-win.
And yes, sometimes, we just want to know what kind of findings could emerge from early data without spending an entire week tagging and sorting it manually. Enter dummy research—AI helps us simulate potential insights so we can course-correct early, and stay curious.
Still Us, Just Supercharged
We’re not handing over the reins to the robots just yet (don’t worry, this newsletter was 100% human-written… well, maybe 90%). But we are embracing the reality: we’re a small team with big ambitions.
And if a tool helps us scale our impact, keep things fun, and get a little sleep? We’re in.
There's something fun we’ve been cooking up that combines this AI energy with insights for you in a way we haven’t tried before—more on that soon.
So stay tuned 👀
Slightly nervous but mostly excited for the future (and signing off now to do something AI-free, like touch grass)
Until next time,
Gayatri :)
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